Eye of the Storm

Chapter

Twenty-seven

DAR WAS CURLED up on the cabin’s small couch, studying some small, encrusted metal bits she’d recovered from the bottom. The drone of the engines was almost soothing. If she really tried, she could put out of her mind the fact that her father was driving the big boat, after giving her a taste of what it was like to try and say no to those big, blue eyes.

A soft sound made her look up to see her mother coming into the cabin, her hair so completely in disarray it appeared she’d stuck a finger into one of the twenty amp sockets in the sidewalls. “I think your father just swamped a Sunfish.”

Dar winced.

Ceci flexed her bare toes and continued across the floor. “This is a lovely setup.” Her hands found a place in the pockets of the soft white cotton pants. “Very functional.”

Dar spread her arms out and looked around the small cabin. “Yeah.

The first time I saw it, it seemed just far too rich, but after I checked it out, most of the trimmings are there for a purpose.” She stroked the wood.

“This weathers well, the fabrics are designed for humidity and sealed, the kitchen gear is nothing fancy. It’s a good working rig.”

Her mother perched on the edge of the counter, which lifted up and doubled as storage. She folded her arms and looked around, nodding.

“You could live on this thing, really.”

“The thought’s occurred to me,” Dar admitted. “Except using a sat hook up to download mail’s a bitch.” Her name being called made her look up. “Yeah?”

“D—oh, there you are.” Kerry scrambled down into the space.

“Would you p—oh, sorry, hi. Am I interrupting?” She paused, giving Cecilia an apologetic look.

“No, no. We were just discussing the boat.” She lifted a slim hand.

“Go on.”

“I’m trying to describe that weird fish we saw, and your father keeps trying to tell me it was a parrot fish. I keep telling him it wasn’t. Do me a favor, would you? Draw it so I can show him?”

“Didn’t you get a picture of it?” Dar queried, sitting up and putting her forearms on table.

Eye of the Storm 249

“Yes, but that’s got to wait for developing.” Kerry sat down next to her with a pad and pencil. “Please?”

“Oh, all right.” The dark haired woman gave her an indulgent look and accepted the pencil. She propped her head up with her other hand as she moved the pad into a more comfortable position. “This was the one with the red and blue stripes and the pig nose, right?”

“Roman nose.”

“Well, I always heard Romans were pigs.” Dar smiled. “Okay. I remember that one. You flipped upside down to take its picture.”

“That’s the one.” Kerry eased away and slipped into the kitchen area, giving Ceci a smile as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the thermos clamped on the counter. “Would you like some?”

“Sure, thank you,” Ceci answered absently, her entire peripheral attention focused on the powerful hand moving the pencil across the paper with sure, confident scratches.

An eye formed.

A round body tapered in back, and properly three-dimensional.

A wide, sturdy tail.

Feathery fins caught in mid motion by a knowledgeable hand.

Cecilia’s eyes followed the dark lines flowing easily from Dar’s imagination, feeling like she’d just walked into a room and been greeted by a little gray man from Mars. Wearing a bow tie.

Speaking French.

For thirty years she’d been convinced the only thing she and her offspring shared was a mutual antagonism and a grudging similarity in musical tastes.

And now here she sat, watching a bit of herself come alive and emerge from those long, tapered fingertips.

Dear Goddess.

A wisp of steam warmed her hand, and she started, then looked at a pair of warm green eyes over a cup of coffee. “Oh,” Ceci murmured, taking the cup. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Kerry’s voice had deepened slightly. She circled the table and settled next to Dar, sipping her coffee and watching her fish emerge. “That’s exactly the one.”

“Uh huh. Thought so. No way was it a parrot,” Dar muttered, sketching in the curious markings on the fish, in a light phosphorescence. “Did you see that little gold triangle, just above the gills?” She made a few last additions, then pushed the pad over. “Okay?”

Kerry regarded the pretty fish with a smile, then lifted her eyes and met Ceci’s. “What do you think?”

A hot flush tingled Dar’s skin, as she realized she’d forgotten that her mother had been standing there watching. A half dozen defensive words filled her mouth clamoring for her tongue’s attention as she tensed and half turned, her tired mind scrambling to deal with the unexpected embarrassment.

Ceci pulled the pad over and studied it. “Well, I’m no expert but I 250 Melissa Good think you’re right. It’s not a parrotfish,” she remarked softly. “It is a really nice sketch, though.” Her eyes slipped up to meet Dar’s, finding her daughter with such a deer in the headlights expression she almost started laughing.

But no.

Instead, she looked at Kerry, whose mossy green eyes held a definite twinkle in them. Why, that little stinker. Ceci felt a jolt of surprise . She did that on purpose.

“Thanks, Dar.” Kerry captured the pad and stood, then leaned over and brushed the top of her lover’s head with her lips. “Be right back.” She bolted out the cabin door and leaped for the ladder, scaled it, and hopped up onto the flying bridge with a chortle. “Bingo!”

Andrew looked up from his instruments and grinned rakishly at her.

“Very smooth, kumquat. Fell for it, did she?”

“Hhhhook, line and ssssinker.” Kerry did a little gopher dance, then showed him the pad. “See?”

Andrew glanced at the picture. “Wall, spin my tail and call me spooky. Wouldja look at that?” He tilted the small instrument light towards the pad and examined the fish. His eyebrows jerked, then knit.

“Cec say anything?”

“She said it was a good sketch,” Kerry replied. “And that it wasn’t a parrotfish.” She poked Andy in the ribs. “Did I do good?”

He ruffled her hair affectionately. “Hell, yes. C’mere, since you like this so damn much.” He gave her an awkward hug and a pat on the back.

“Wanna help me steer this thing?”

“Sure.” Kerry peered into the pitch darkness. “Is that the buoy?

Yeah. Hey, I always wanted to do something…”

“What?”

“This.” Kerry shoved both the throttles forward and the bow lifted as the wind suddenly screamed past her. “Oh yeah.”

“Son of a…”

KERRY TRUDGED INTO the living room, her Tweety Bird shirt draped over one shoulder and a bottle of aloe lotion in one hand, meeting Dar coming out of her office, followed by Chino. “Hey. Can I beg a favor?”

Dar observed the nearly naked woman with two hiked brows.

“Beg?” she murmured, eyes going a little round.

“Tch.” Kerry butted her head against one of her friend’s shoulders.

“Slather me, please?” She held out the bottle. “I feel like I’m being compressed in saran wrap.”

Dar took the aloe and squeezed some out, then delicately turned her subject around and spread it. “So. Did you win the bet?” she asked casually, tracing a damp, green line over the pink area across the back of Kerry’s neck.

“What bet?” Kerry murmured.

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“The fish,” Dar drawled, her breath brushing against sensitive skin.

“What fi—? Oh.” Kerry turned her head and peeked. “Um…”

“You,” Dar licked her ear, “are such a little meddler.”

The blonde woman assumed a contrite look. “Are you mad at me?”

Dar let her stew for a few minutes, while she finished her spreading, feeling the shoulders under her fingers shift and straighten. “I should be.

You caught me so off guard with that. Not a really pleasant feeling.” She turned Kerry around to face her and started on the sunburned skin there, aware of the grave eyes searching her face.

“You’d have been too self-conscious otherwise,” Kerry almost whispered. “I just wanted her to see you have part of her in you.”

Dar didn’t answer, her face shifting in thought.

“I-I haven’t known either of you that long but, I sort of sat down and thought about it.” Kerry’s nervousness came out in a torrent of words.

“And what it seems to me is that you and your dad are so close. You look so much alike, and all that stuff, I thought maybe you… I mean, I thought if your mother could see there is this bit...I—” Kerry had to stop because Dar kissed her. When they parted, Kerry let out a tiny sigh. “I have this ‘solve everyone else’s problems’ gene that just kicks in sometimes.” She shrugged. “Besides, I like your mom.”

Dar leaned her forehead against her partner’s. “I noticed you two seemed to get along,” she murmured. “Listen, Kerry. My mother and I have thirty years of whitewater rapids behind us.” She kissed the sunburned skin lightly. “And there are some things that just can’t be fixed.”

Kerry looked at her sadly.

“At least not right away,” Dar hastily amended. “Though,” her brows knitted, “there does seem to be a hell of a lot less we disagree on now.” She sighed. “Either she’s mellowed out a lot or…”

“You’ve grown up,” Kerry finished softly.

“Mmm,” the dark haired woman acknowledged. “Maybe a little of both.” She took Kerry’s T-shirt, bunched up the fabric, put it over her head and settled it over her now aloe’d body carefully. “That was, by the way, an impressively sneaky move, though.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” Kerry essayed a tentative smile. “You’re so hard to do that to. I was really kind of surprised it worked.” She rubbed her fingers against Dar’s bare skin, between her cutoff shirt and her soft cotton shorts. “Did your mom say anything after I left?”

“No.” Dar thoughtfully paused. “But she was thinking.”

“Thought so.” Kerry exhaled in satisfaction. “She snitched the sketch pad before she left.” One green eye winked and she patted Dar on the side, before she edged around her and headed for the kitchen.

Dar looked after her and shook her head, acknowledging her partner’s pugnacious stubborn streak. Then she followed along, retrieved a glass from the cupboard and squirted some chocolate syrup into it. “Want some?”

“Nu uh.” Kerry was busy at the counter, filling a handled mug with some vanilla ice cream, then adding root beer to it. “To each their own 252 Melissa Good poison.” She poked at the ice cream with a spoon, making the soda fizzle up. “Whew. I gotta tell you, Dar, your parents wore me out, though.” She hooked her arm in the dark haired woman’s and tugged her to the living room, where they settled on the couch and put their socked feet up on the coffee table. “I hope I’ve got that kind of energy to spare when I get a little older.”

“You and me both,” Dar agreed. “They’re something else.” She observed the foamy moustache gracing Kerry’s mouth and decided to remove it. “Mmm.” She licked a surprised lower lip. “Maybe I should try one of those.”

“Try one of what?” Kerry had set down her glass, half turned, squirmed up Dar’s body and attempted to retrieve some of her chocolate milk the hard way. “Hmm. Ooo, I like that. Yeah. And I—Jesus! Dar!”

Kerry yelped, almost levitating off her lover’s lap. “Your hands are cold.”

“Nu uh.” Dar moved her touch. “Your skin is hot. Sorry, forgot the sunburn.” She slid her fingers lower. “Better?”

“Oh. Yeah. Much better.” She relaxed again, nuzzling the side of Dar’s neck. “Thank goodness for bathing suits.”

“Definitely.” Dar chuckled, as she slid the cotton T-shirt up and found a tasty navel to nibble, feeling a nice shiver down her back as Kerry leaned over and tasted the top of her spine. The scent of aloe, warm skin, and a hint of coconut oil flowed around her, along with the faint rasp as Kerry’s breathing deepened. Her teeth tugged playfully on the elastic of the clean cotton underwear she had on and the blonde woman’s body shifted towards her, obeying the pull with subtle eagerness.

The day’s fatigue dropped away as she circled the lean waist with her grip and guided Kerry backwards, easing her gently down onto the couch and starting her assault in earnest.

The cold of the leather against her sunburned back momentarily distracted her, but in bare moments, tickling touches and skillful nibbles made her lose track of insignificant details like stinging skin. Her fingers slipped through Dar’s hair and caressed the edges of her ears, then wandered further to the sloping muscles on either side of her neck that shifted as she touched them. She felt short of breath and tried to inhale more deeply, but the tension coiling up from her guts kept her body tensed and shifting and wanting more.

A low purring growl came from within Dar, sending a powerful jolt right to her groin, and she abandoned herself utterly to the pure, animal joy of it.

“KNOW SOMETHING, ANDY?”

“Mmm?” The blue eyes were closed.

“I’ve come to the sad realization that I’m an old fart.”

One eyeball appeared. “Yeap.” He yawned. “Them kids got too much spunk.”

Ceci had discovered a swinging chaise in the screened in area on one Eye of the Storm 253

side of the cottage and they were nestled together on that, rocking slowly under the lazily moving wicker fan. “Felt good to get back under the water again, though.”

Her husband didn’t answer for a minute, then he sniffed and cleared his throat. “Aches less under thar,” he admitted. “Got a lot of hurt in these damn bones.” Too many years and too many injuries, and here, at last, was the one person in the world he’d ever admit that to. At least now, though, it was mostly only bodily hurt, a hell of a lot easier to live with.

Hardly no matter, really.

“I’ve got some herbal rub,” Ceci offered. “Can I treat you to a massage?”

“Five dollar word for back rub?” He returned a hesitant tease.

“Not really. ’Cause I was going to go way past just your back,” she responded wryly, feeling the silent movement as he laughed. “Hey, Andy?”

“Yeap?”

“You know, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but I’ve been thinking all day about how nice it was on that boat.”

“Rally,” came the low drawl.

“Really. Everything was handy and it was just so cute in there.”

“Uh huh.”

“What do you think about getting one of those, instead of a house?”

Long, peaceful moments of dead silence followed.

“You mean to tell me, you want to live on a damn boat?” Andrew finally spluttered. “Thirty some years you ain’t wanted nothin’ but fer me to get off the damn things and now you wanna get on board one?”

Ceci bit her lip, acknowledging the paradox. “Well, yes, actually.”

“Son of a biscuit.”

“C’mon, Andy. You know you’ve always wanted one. We could even get you one of those little captain’s hats.”

“Like hell.”

“A blue blazer?”

“Ah have no idea where I can even get me one of these things, woman. Not like you can pick one up in K-mart.” The idea had stuck itself to him, though.

“What. A blazer? Sure you could, honey,” Ceci assured him, then laughed. “I bet someone on this island knows where to get them. C’mon, maybe they can make it special for us. You can tell them how you want it.” She paused. “The boat, I mean. Not the jacket.”

Fingers drummed on a cotton covered thigh. “Less you like gray bulkheads, Mrs. Roberts, you better be the decorator in this here crew.”

“Does that mean yes?”

“You are serious?” he asked, honestly curious.

Ceci nestled against his shoulder and nodded. “Yes, I am,” she answered quietly. “We can lease a slip over at South Beach Marina.

They’ve got a nice area there and it’s close by.”

254 Melissa Good

“Got it all figgered out, huh?”

“We can take off and go out to the Bahamas if we want. Dive the reefs there,” his wife pointed out. “Or go down to Key West. Watch a few sunsets.” The colors appealed to her. “I’ve been thinking about doing a set of naturescapes. Maybe I’ll do an underwater.”

“No more rock scenes?” Andy asked, stroking the silvered gold hair gently, thinking of the last one he’d seen, up in that little gallery that everyone’d like so much.

Waiting on the Edge of the Sea, she’d called it. A seabreak of gray slate, surrounded by sullen gray and foam seas, against a stormy sky, with a lone figure standing in the wind.

Alone.

“No. My ship’s in port.” A faint smile. “If I painted that today, there would be a break in the clouds, and the sun would be lighting up everything in sight.” Ceci exhaled in wonder. “What a difference a week makes.”

Yeah. “Wonder how big they make the engines for them things?”

Ceci looked up at him. Uh oh.

Forgot about the boy and his toys. “Um, honey?”

“Heh, heh. Yeah?”

“Don’t forget the seatbelts in the head.”

THE PHONE BUZZED. “Dar?”

The voice almost made her jump, so intently had she been concentrating on the network layout on her screen. “Yes?”

“I have Mr. Alastair on line uno.”

Shit. Dar glanced at her watch. Bastard works fast. “Go ahead.” She listened for the click. “Morning, Alastair.”

“Morning, Dar.” Her boss sounded upset. “I’d catch you on the vid phone, but I’m on the way into the office.”

“Really? How’s the weather there in Houston?” Dar morbidly tried to delay the inevitable. “It’s raining here.”

“Nice.” Alastair sighed. “I guess you know why I’m calling.”

She toyed with the notion of denying it. “I’ve got a good idea, sure.”

She put a bit of disgust into her tone. “David Asshole got home and decided to go ahead with his lawsuit.”

Alastair was silent for a moment. “I got a voice mail from him.

You’re about right, Dar. He’s filing suit against you, personally, today for a list of things, most of which I’d just laugh at, but the last thing on the list is the fact that you made decisions intended to bring you personal profit.”

“Yeah? Like what?” Dar clicked on a router and checked its configuration. “Point of fact, Alastair, since I’m a stockholder just about every decision I make is calculated to make me and all the other stockholders personal profit.”

“Meaning, you hired Kerry because you two are lovers.”

Eye of the Storm 255

“I hired Kerry before we were lovers,” Dar replied. “I hired Kerry before we were even friends.”

“You broke company rules.”

“Not then, I didn’t.”

“Sure you did, Dar. You hired her without benefit of the interview process and bypassed twenty other more qualified candidates.”

Dar was quiet for a few heartbeats. “She was qualified.”

“I’m not disputing that, I didn’t then and I don’t now, Dar, especially since she’s turned in a sterling performance the last six months. Kerry is a good employee, a great manager, and a very good choice for the position she’s in.”

“But?”

Alastair sighed. “But the point is, you did break the rules then.”

“And?”

“And the board came down on my ass like a ton of bricks after they had a session with your personnel file.”

“When was this?” Dar’s whole body tensed, but she kept her tone light. “Don’t tell me they worked over the weekend.”

“Yesterday.”

“What’s their beef? Since when do they care who sleeps with who, Alastair? You know Harby is having a public affair with that country western singer and Allan Jacobs got busted last month for soliciting underage sex on the Internet.”

Alastair sighed audibly. “Their beef is, Ankow wants to make this a very public trial, exposing what happens when you let ‘one of those people’ be in the kind of position you are.”

“He’ll lose the suit.”

“It doesn’t matter. The exposure will be there, regardless, and it’s not like we can sweep you under the carpet, Dar.”

Dar folded her hands on her desk blotter, her screen forgotten.

“What does he want?”

Another long sigh. “You, out. Me, resigning in a reasonable time period. The chairmanship up for a vote of the general stockholders.”

She leaned forward. “And?”

“And what?”

“And, what are you going to do?” A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. “You firing me?”

“I’d rather cut my own left nut off,” Alastair replied crisply, dropping into an unusual earthiness. “The board is meeting Thursday night.

You need to be there. What’ll happen after that, I don’t know, Dar.” He went awkwardly silent then drew breath. “This doesn’t help you, I know, but my personal position has been, and will be on Thursday, that before, during, and now I trust your judgement implicitly, and of all the decisions I’ve seen you make, there aren’t any I regret.”

Dar’s eyes closed. “It does help, Alastair. He’s as much after you, as me. He tried to force me into trying to oust you. I said no. That’s where the lawsuit comes in.”

256 Melissa Good There was a long silence, enough for her to clearly hear the sound of the AC unit in her office cycling off and on. “Alastair?”

“You turned him down, hmm?” His voice held equal measures of wryness and wistful curiosity. “Let me guess. You told him…”

“To kiss my ass, yes.” Dar smiled a bit. “And regardless of what happens, I don’t regret that. The man makes me sick, Alastair.” She paused.

“The board’s spooked, huh?”

“Yes,” her boss replied. “But what worries me, Dar, is that he says he has proof your relationship has subverted your judgement and that both of you have taken advantage of the company and your positions to circumvent company rules.” He sounded troubled. “What’s that all about?”

Dar stood, went to her window, and leaned against the glass, peering out. “Stupidity,” she murmured. “I stayed home sick one day last week.

Kerry rearranged her schedule and took a half-day off.” She shook her head. “He followed her to the ferry.”

“Well, that’s not a big deal.”

“No.” It was embarrassing, now that she remembered it. “But we went to my high school reunion last Saturday and he got pictures of us both there.”

“So?”

“With our arms around each other.”

“Again, so?”

“Dressed like a pair of biker chicks.”

Dead silence. “Oh my fucking god,” Alastair cursed. “Tell me you’re pulling my leg, Dar. I can’t believe that.”

“Wish I could.” Dar crossed back to her desk and resumed her seat.

“It was a come as you were and I don’t remember if you remember how I was, but—”

“I remember.”

“Well, it made quite a picture.” Dar rested her chin on one hand.

“I…um…screwed up there, Alastair. I’m sorry.”

“Dar, you’re the Chief Information Officer of the largest IS company in the world. How could you do something that stupid?”

It had been a very long time since she’d had to accept that kind of rebuke. And she really had no good answer for it, either. “It was a damn party, Alastair,” she finally muttered. “I didn’t really think about it.”

“Jesus.” Alastair sounded disgusted.

Dar sighed. “Well, now that you know the worst, I’ve got to go, Alastair. We’re about to start bringing up the new network.” She paused.

“Guess I’ll see you on Thursday.” She felt the silence. “Unless you’d just like me to resign now and save us all the trouble and me a plane ticket.”

Her boss hesitated, then made a sound halfway between a sigh and a grunt. “Are you doing anything in this picture?”

“Walking.”

“It was a theme party?”

“Yes.”

“Please tell me neither of you are naked.”

Eye of the Storm 257

“We aren’t.”

“Or drunk.”

“Nope.”

“Just walking?”

“That’s it. We were in the parking lot. He was hanging out there waiting for us, which, now that I think about it, Alastair, is pretty damned strange, since the number of people who knew where I was that night was pretty damned limited.”

“Okay,” he replied, with more assurance. “At least I’ve got a heads up so when he pulls the damn thing out, I can laugh at it or find some way to defuse that part of the issue.” He sighed. “Least I can do for you putting yourself into the line of fire for me. But for God’s sake, Dar. Try to remember you’re not some spike haired punk anymore?”

“All right,” she answered, with admirable contriteness.

“I tried to call you last night. You didn’t answer your pager.”

Dar let out a held breath, but knew the reprieve was only very temporary. “We were out on the boat with some very special guests.” So strange to think of, much less say. “My parents.”

“B—” Alastair started, then stopped. “Wait. B…I tho…” He stopped again. “Didn’t um…I thought I remem…we sent…ah…”

“They made a mistake. He was MIA and he came home.” Dar smiled at the fighting fish, who blew bubbles at her.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me? Do we always have to talk only about disasters?” Alastair blurted, indignantly. “Dar, that’s wonderful. I only had the pleasure of meeting your father the once, but I thought he was a wonderful guy and I was really sorry to hear something had happened to him.” He paused. “That’s great news.”

“Thanks.” An alert went off on her monitor and she switched screens. “Whoops. Backbones are coming up. I’ve gotta run, Alastair. If I’ve only got a few days left, I want to make sure this damn network falls into place first.”

A soft sigh. “I’ll talk to you later, Dar.” The line went dead and Dar looked at the phone for a long moment, before she stood and picked up her jacket, then headed for the door.